In recent years, a movement to replace incandescent light bulbs with lighting fixtures that employ more efficient lighting technologies, as well as to replace relatively efficient fluorescent lighting fixtures with lighting technologies that produce a more pleasing, natural light, has gained traction. One such technology that shows tremendous promise employs light emitting diodes (LEDs). Compared with incandescent bulbs, LED-based light fixtures are much more efficient at converting electrical energy into light, are longer lasting, and are also capable of producing light that appears very natural. Compared with fluorescent lighting, LED-based fixtures are also very efficient, but are capable of producing light that appears much more natural and is more capable of accurately rendering colors. As a result, lighting fixtures that employ LED technologies are expected to replace incandescent and fluorescent bulbs in residential, commercial, and industrial applications.
Unlike incandescent bulbs, which operate by subjecting a filament to a desired current, LED-based lighting fixtures require electronics to drive one or more LEDs. The electronics generally include a power supply and a special control circuitry to provide uniquely configured signals that are required to drive the one or more LEDs in a desired fashion. The presence of the control circuitry adds a potentially significant level of intelligence to the lighting fixtures. This control circuitry may include executable code that can be leveraged to employ various types of lighting control functionality.
Updating the executable code is desirable in order to provide additional lighting control functionality or to fix bugs. Unfortunately, this is often cumbersome, since it can require removing the lighting fixture from a support structure. Large facilities may have a plethora of lighting fixtures, making updates laborious and expensive. As such, more efficient components and techniques are needed to provide updates for the lighting fixtures.